The death toll from a collision between a passenger bus and a truck near Pakpattan rose to 11 on Tuesday, with rescue officials confirming that 33 others remain under treatment in local hospitals.
The accident occurred on the Arifwala-Pakpattan road in the early hours of the morning. Witnesses say the bus, traveling from Lahore to Arifwala, slammed into a truck parked on the shoulder of the highway. The impact tore through the side of the bus, leaving the wreckage scattered across the tarmac.
Rescue 1122 teams arrived within minutes, pulling passengers from the mangled metal. Several victims were trapped for nearly an hour as responders used hydraulic cutters to clear the debris.
“The bus was speeding,” one survivor told reporters outside the District Headquarters Hospital. “I woke up to the sound of metal screeching and then everything went black.”
Doctors at the hospital have declared an emergency. Of the 33 injured, at least eight remain in critical condition. Hospital staff have struggled to manage the sudden influx of patients, with some families forced to transfer their relatives to larger facilities in Sahiwal due to a shortage of specialized trauma equipment.
Police have taken the truck driver into custody, though initial reports suggest the truck was parked without hazard lights or proper warning signs. A formal investigation is now underway to determine whether mechanical failure or driver fatigue played a part in the crash.
Traffic accidents of this scale are common on this stretch of road, where poor lighting and lax enforcement of speed limits frequently lead to fatalities. While the government has promised to install more warning signs and increase patrols, the death toll on Punjab’s highways continues to climb.
For now, families are gathered at the hospital morgue, waiting for the legal formalities to conclude so they can take their loved ones home for burial.
